g68 MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS RELATING TO ANTHROPOLOGY. 



more particularly refer, couvince me that it was not carved for the pur- 

 pose of deceiving scientific investigators, as might be, and I believe has 

 been, charged. For the same reasons I am led to form a strong opinion 

 that the carving was executed long before the date of British occupa- 

 tion. Irrespective of these reasons, however, I would point to the carv- 

 ing itself as an answer to the theory; and the argument here makes as 

 strongly against the suggestion of French origin as it does against that 

 of British. The features and expression of the face are not in any re- 

 spect European, neither is the shape of the head. Again the ellipti- 

 cal eye, appearing on a profile as it should only properly appear to the 

 spectator in the full face, is a characteristic of Eastern, especially of 

 Egyptian, art. I have not the means at hand to verify the opinion, but, 

 if my memory serves me rightly, this same peculiarity appears in de- 

 lineations of human faces among the ancient Mexican Indians, if not 

 among other American tribes. The theory for which I contend is, 

 that a European workman, either skilled or unskilled, would have pro- 

 duced something having a semblance to a European subject or work of 

 art. The suggestion of French origin for the sculpture leads me to 

 speak of the connection of the French with the history of this part 

 of the province. 



The earliest record of the French occupation of Acadia is that of 

 De Monts, who with a party of fellow-countrymen i)assed the winter of 

 1604 on the island of St. Croix, situated on the river of the same name, 

 forming the boundary between the province and the State of Maine, 

 and distant about twenty-one miles from the village of St. George. I 

 have never heard of there being any considerable number of French set- 

 tlers in the neighborhood of St. George, and cannot even say with cer- 

 tainty that there were any French families permanently settled there. 

 L'Etang approaches to within 300 feet or so of Utopia, and La Tete Pas- 

 sage is distant about eight miles from the village, and the occurrence of 

 these names may lead to the inference that there was a partial French 

 occupation of the adjacent country. I have indeed heard of inscriptions 

 on the rock at Black's Harbor, or its vicinity, on Bliss's Island, which are 

 supposed to be in French, but have never met any one who had actu- 

 ally seen these inscriptions. This island is nearly half way between 

 Campobello or Deer Island and Utopia, from which it is about ten 

 miles distant, and opposite the mouth of La Tete Passage. By no hy- 

 pothesis, however, am I able to connect this curiosity with any Euro- 

 pean custom or idea, and consequently the remainder of my investiga- 

 tion will be devoted to the argument in favor of its Indian origin. 



If it is possible to derive approximately accurate information as to 

 the age of the stone from its situation and condition when found, it 

 would of course assist materially in discovering the nationality of the 

 workman. I believe that the finder, who, as I have stated, was search- 

 ing for stone for building purposes, was attracted by the shape of the 

 stone in question; that it was lying on the surface and covered with 



